(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages at Kean University will present the Premiere of Satellites by Erin Breznitsky from July 13-30 in Kean University's Bauer Boucher Theatre Center. Selected as the winner of the 2022 Premiere Play Festival, the first production of this new play will be one of Premiere's most ambitious to date, as a talented team of designers work with the director and cast to meld together projections, sound, lighting, scenic design and costumes to take audiences on a journey to space and back.
In Satellites, married couple Katherine & Mike are each on a mission to save the world. She’s a scientist studying climate change; he’s an astronaut exploring the unknown. When Mike’s shuttle vanishes in outer space, Katherine forges ahead alone, raising their children and continuing her life’s work until Mike suddenly reappears without explanation. As the couple struggles to adjust to his strange return, they’re forced to reexamine their entire relationship—while also facing an uncertain future.
“This exciting new production is the first time Premiere Stages will be incorporating a three projection set up into a design’” stated John J. Wooten, Premiere Stages Producing Artistic Director and Satellites Director. "Erin’s approach provides an innovative and seamless exploration of the unknown limits of time and space.”
Actors Terrell Wheeler and Ellyn Heald
Leading the production are Ellyn Heald, whose theatre credits include And Then There Were None and An Inspector Calls (Florida Rep) and Triumph of Love (Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey) as Doctor Katherine Sparks and Terrell Wheeler, whose acting credits include Fly (New Victory Theatre), That Poor Dream (New Ohio Theatre) and The Last Saint on Sugar Hill (National Black Theatre), as Captain Mike Turner. Understudies for the production are Kean University Theatre Conservatory alumni Jessica DeLuca and Spenser C. Williams.
The professional design team includes Set Designer David Barber, Projection Designer Paul Deziel, Lighting Designer Zack Gage, Costume Designer Stefanie Genda, and Sound Designer Chad Raines.
Director John J. Wooten has been nominated as Best Director multiple times by the Newark Star-Ledger and has staged numerous productions that have been honored by the American Theatre Critics Association. As a playwright, John’s widely published work has been produced commercially in New York, internationally and in regional theatres across America. He was awarded his second fellowship by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 2021.
Playwright Erin Breznitsky is a Scotch Plains, New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based playwright whose work has been seen in NYC and abroad. Her plays include: Satellites (O'Neill Playwrights Conference semi-finalist), The Unwritten City (Princess Grace Playwriting Award finalist), Bodies of Water (FringeNYC), R Plus J: a new play (Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries finalist), The Kitchen Table Plays (FringeNYC; English Theatre of Rome, Italy), Sverginata (Sarah Lawrence College), and over a dozen short plays with Love Drunk and New York Madness. Other credits include “The Living Mural" and an Urban Stages commission for young audiences. Erin has an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
Satellites runs July 13-July 30 in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn Eames Hall) located on the Kean University main campus (1000 Morris Avenue) in Union, New Jersey. Performances take place Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm.
Tickets are $35 standard, $25 for senior citizens and Kean alumni and staff, $20 for patrons with disabilities and $15 for students. Significant discounts for groups of ten or more apply. Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling the box office. For information about opening night or season packages, please call the box office at 908-737-7469.
Premiere Stages offers affordable prices, air-conditioned facilities and free parking close to the theatre. Premiere Stages also provides free or discounted tickets to patrons with disabilities. All Premiere Stages facilities are fully accessible spaces, and companion seating is available for patrons with disabilities.
Assistive listening devices and large print playbills are available at every performance. Sign language interpretation performances are available upon request; please call 908-737-4077 at least two weeks prior to your desired performance.
Premiere Stages is made possible in part through funding from W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, The Union County HEART Grant and through the generous support of individual patrons and local organizations. Discover Jersey Arts is our marketing partner. Visit JerseyArts.com for more information about other arts programming happening around the Garden State.
Premiere Stages is committed to producing topical plays and interactive programs that reflect people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, national origins, nationalities, ancestry, religious groups, gender expression or identities, sexual orientation, political beliefs, ages, abilities and disabilities.
Created in 2004, Premiere Stages is the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University. Through its unique partnership with Kean, Premiere’s play development programs, educational initiatives, and professional development opportunities actively embrace the university's academic curriculum while expanding the scope, accessibility, and prestige of the professional programming on campus.
Founded in 1855, Kean University is one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving more than 16,000 students. The University’s six colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate degrees, seven doctoral degree programs, and more than 70 options for graduate study leading to master’s degrees, professional diplomas or certifications over a full range of academic subjects. With campuses in Union, Toms River, Jefferson and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable and accessible world-class education.
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